Sunday, 28 December 2008

Here is my bargain of the week,I picked up a pair of NIKE ZOOM EXPLOSIONSfor £39They are ideal for forefoot strikers with a energy return pad under the ball of the foot and are very light!DAM! I just found them even cheaper HERE FOR £30NEWS UPDATE!I was that impressed with the shoe I ordered a second pair direct from Nike [ ordered Sunday and received Tuesday morning, now thats what I call good service and all for £ 30 + p&p].

Nirenstein's book is opposite to the other techniques that have been published. They tell you to extend your stride by pushing back harder at the ground to run faster. Nirenstein contends that it is impossible to push back at the ground while running. The front muscles of the leg that cross the knee push the foot down and forward to support and to toss the body up. Everyone tries to push back at the ground, but it never happens. The part about the longer stride making you run faster is also not true. The longer you reach ahead, the slower you run.

According to the author, the fact is that if you are not falling forward, you can't be moving forward. Only gravity can make you fall forward and increase your speed. Your sense of balance anticipates whether where you land will make you fall. It won't let you shorten your reach unless you are doing the right things to exchange your feet in time to keep you from falling. You are jumping straight up while you are falling to keep you level with the ground. There is a lot you must know about form before you start to train. Every one of the techniques in the Nirenstein book must be used or you could be derailed from running.

Sunday, 21 December 2008

Both Niz and myself have been very ill this week, fever, muscles ache , dizziness and all the rest!My Doctor warned me not to run as it would drive the virus deep into my body, well there wasn't much chance of that as I'm so weak its hard work just standing up right now!Having flu reminds me of a family holiday back in 1969 during the moon landings, I came down with chicken pocks and had a dreadful fever, in the middle of the night I some how found myself outside the hotel staring up at the moon, did I really see Apollo 11 up in space or was it just a feverish hallucination !

Monday, 15 December 2008

Gravity pulls you for all speeds from walking to sprinting. When you drop your feet behind your body's center (navel high), the speed increases exponentially with each stride. The more steps and farther back you drop your feet the more speed increases. You level off when your coordination stops. At that point your feet reach ahead of center. The less ahead, the less slowdown from the speed you reached.Landing off balance more than the others always wins because gravity pulls you faster. You can't do that without falling unless you exchange your feet faster (up and forward). The speed spreads the feet apart and you need to work hard to keep them together as much as you can. The effort to shorten your stride pays off to land more to the rear. Far behind the center of balance at the start and less in front of center when you reach your pace.When you stand centered between your heel and toe the heel is pressing from behind and the toe is pressing from in front. You are centered between both supports and no muscles can push you, because your legs are designed to push you straight up, not forward. You can't move forward staying centered. you need to lift the front support and fall forward. When you reach your pace your feet drop ahead. The more they drop ahead the more you lose the speed you reached.

Sunday, 14 December 2008

After getting ill a week last Saturday, I spent the Sunday and Monday with aching muscles and sore throat. I had a day off on Monday before getting back into my running on Tuesday, I ran down to the club session at my fastest over cruising speed thanks to GRAVITY RUNNING but felt a bit flat once we started the fartlek session thanks to my lingering illness.In fact because Brian was ill I was given charge of the group and under Brian's orders I had them run 3 loops with 3 efforts each lap, it seemed to go well and everyone said they enjoyed the run.Paul was flying [ it might be because he's been practicing GRAVITY RUNNING since I sent him the e book 'JUST UNDO IT' anyway it took a 4.50 paced effort at the end to beat him ! Running home I felt drained but still took the long way home to give me 2 hoursWed 10th I ran easy over the big sand dunes with no problems, because of a X/C race on Saturday I made this into a long run of 1 h 49 minsThur 11th LEG SPEED SESSION I cut the session down to 6 x 160m as I felt drained and was coughing in the damp air. = 34minsFri 12th Core training Sat 13thBLACKPOOL X/C after very heavy rain the course was flooded in places and quite muddy. I was holding my own for the first lap but ran out of energy on the second and final lap [ thanks to the virus I think] I did pull myself together over the last mile, but overall I could have done better given a clean bill of health! In the evening we enjoyed the club Christmas dinner with 40 or so members turning up, very good event! Sun 14th Fartelk run over the sandhill 6 with Sarah and Jon boy 1.05

Monday, 8 December 2008

THERE SEEMS TO BE A LOT OF DEBATE GOING ON BETWEEN BLOGGERS AS TO WHICH IS BEST, HEEL OR FOREFOOT STRIKE!Back in the 80's most long distance coaches use to recommend a heel strike in the belief that it was easier on the calf muscles!As a result Nike and the other shoe manufacturers started making shoes with more and more heel padding, the Nike Air Max being a good example, unfortunately these shoes were like running with jelly fish on your feet. Result; many injury problems as the runners feet wobbled all over the place!So next Nike and the rest start inventing stability bars and roll bars etc to correct there unstable shoes, They even had the nerve to charge us extra for all these gadgets, which after all were designed to correct there own shoe faults. Man, how gullible are us runners!Thankfully the African runners came along and showed us the natural way to run, years of bare foot running gave them a beautiful biomechanically perfect running action and it all starts with a forefoot strike with the toes up off the ground.At long last shoe manufactures have started to make changes to there shoes and even some of the shoe makers now admit they got it wrong in the past/Sadly some runners still cling on to the mistaken believe that heel striking is best, maybe one day they will see the light, maybe after chronic knee or foot pain brings them to a grinding halt!Reason why heel striking is bad for your body;1/ THE HEEL CAN NOT ABSORB SHOCK, try running bare foot on a dirt path landing on your heels!You would never heel strike running bare foot so why do it when wearing shoes!If you change from well padded shoes to light weight shoes for a race you stand to get hurt! without large amounts of padding landing on your heels will send shock waves up your legs, knees and back, ouch!Reasons to forefoot strike;your body was designed for forefoot striking.By landing on the balls of your feet with toes up the arch acts as a natural shock absorber and spring giving you return energy.landing on the balls of your feet will set you up for a natural smooth flowing stride. VIDEOTips for good forefoot running1/ Keep feet, ankles and calf muscles relaxed.2/ Keep your toes slightly up! pressing down into the ground with your toes makes your arch rigid and stops it working as a shock absorber and spring, lift your toes up slightly and feel your feet turn into loaded springs!3/ land more behind your center of gravity, see GRAVITY RUNNING BELOW.4/ Don't push off, once your foot touches down relax your leg muscles, let the road drag your feet back.5/ start with just small amounts of forefoot running, slowly build it into your runs.THE HUMAN FOOT

Sunday, 7 December 2008

Freezing conditions inc hell stones made the first part of the week hard going, then after finishing work on Saturday morning I felt weak and dizzy with a sore throat! Four hours in bed and I didn't feel any better, so I spent the rest of the day in bed and gave the long run a miss!Getting up in the evening I felt somewhat better! so I ran a 3 mile tempo run, I'd planned to lift the pace in the last mile and a half, but ice on the pavement and road meant I kept losing traction!I was happy to finish with an average of 6.20 pace, not bad taking into account the darkness, freezing temperature and icy conditions!Sat 6th Tempo run 3.01 miles = 19.05Fri 5th Core trainingThur leg speed session x 10, max speed 15.9 mph = 37 minsWed 4th Long run in the big sandhills, very cold, good job I could run off road as the roads were very icy. Last 1/2 mile was very funny, as old people cautiously crossed an icy back road I found my self skiing along as mad dog dragged me oblivious to the surrounding conditions! = 1.33Tue 3rd Club fartlek session, ran down and back to give me 2 hours, despite hell stones at the start this turned out to be my fastest ever average pace for this session. = 2.00Mon 2nd Core trainingThe GRAVITY RUNNING is going really well, getting faster and faster!

Saturday, 6 December 2008

Thursday, 4 December 2008

I have seen a dramatic improvement in my cruising speed since I started gravity running less than 2 weeks ago! My steady 80 % of max HR pace has increased from 8.6 mph to 9.1 mph.I am constantly amazed each time I look at my Garmin to see that I am now running at what used to be a tempo effort yet now feels like a steady endurance pace!This is pretty cool stuff, I just hope my age group rivals don't get to hear about this and adapt to gravity running!I'm started to get excited about kicking some serious ass next year!